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The Pretoria High Court today dismissed the application by Gidani (Pty) Ltd to review and set aside the decision of the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies to award the third National Lottery Licence to Ithuba Holdings (Pty) Ltd.

Negotiations between Minister Davies and Ithuba were successfully concluded on 7 August 2015, following which Minister Davies issued the Licence to Ithuba. Previous lottery operator Gidani, then sought to challenge Minister Davies’ decision to award the Licence to Ithuba and launched an application in the Pretoria High Court to review and set aside the decision. This was the second challenge brought by Gidani relating to the award of the Lottery Licence.

Gidani raised several grounds of review in its application, including: that the Minister failed to consider the maximisation of contributions to the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, the process followed by Minister Davies was inadequate for the purpose of coming to a lawful decision, Minister Davies’ decision was unlawful because he could not have been satisfied that Ithuba had the necessary financial resources to operate the Lottery, Minister Davies failed to take into account whether Ithuba was fit and proper to operate the Lottery and the Minister’s failure to negotiate with Gidani renders the award of the Licence to Ithuba unlawful.

The Court dismissed each of the grounds of review raised by Gidani and held that it was unable to find that the Minister acted irrationally or unreasonably in coming to his decision or that he ignored matters that he should have taken into account.  The Court stated that Gidani’s grounds of review did not make out a case of unlawful conduct on the part of Minister Davies and it had not been demonstrated that Minister Davies acted unlawfully or breached one or other legal provision in making the decision.  The Court held that it was unable to find any merit in Gidani’s application and dismissed the application, with Gidani ordered to pay the costs of the application.

Minister Davies is confident that now that the process has been finalised, Ithuba will continue with its plans to operate and invigorate the National Lottery and ensure continued contributions to good causes.

Issued by the Department of Trade and Industry